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Name: Jyaire Hill
Height: 6’2"
Weight: 171 lbs.
High school: Kankakee (IL) Kankakee
Position: Cornerback
Class: Freshman
Jersey number: #20
Last year: Hill was a senior in high school (LINK). He made 42 tackles, 5 tackles for loss, 2 sacks, 3 interceptions, and 3 forced fumbles.
TTB Rating: 88
Hill swooped in late during the 2023 recruiting class and quickly became one of the most exciting players in the group. Michigan needed help at cornerback and had struggled to land a big-time player at the position despite on-field success and a good chance of playing time if D.J. Turner II and Gemon Green decided to leave, which they did. (To be fair, Turner and Green did not announce their decisions until after the December signing day.) Hill had been one of Michigan's top priorities at the position, but he was considering Illinois and Auburn, two programs whose success on the field in the past few years has paled in comparison to Michigan's. So it seemed like an obvious choice, but Michigan had to sweat it out, anyway.
This season will be an interesting year for Hill and the cornerback position in general. Sophomore Will Johnson is a lock to start on one side, but the other side still seems up in the air. Amorion Walker was talked up in the spring, but he didn't look good in the spring game. UMass transfer Josh Wallace is a multi-year starter who has the experience edge over everyone. And it's also possible that nickel corner Mike Sainristil could play on the outside.
It would be a surprise if Hill leaps over those other guys for a starting role. I think he needs to wait until at least 2024 before he's ready for that responsibility. But as a talented player at a position that's going to need a new face next year - both Wallace and Sainristil will probably be gone - it would be good for Hill to get some experience in 2023.
Prediction: Backup cornerback
This was a kid I got pumped about. He’s a very nice combination of size and speed. He played about every skill position you can play at the high school level including QB. You might not be aware of this but frequently former HS QBs make real nice and intuitive defenders.
ReplyDeleteI do share a bit of concern about lack of experience at the corner, but real good size and speed. Hips work too.
After some CB by committee early on, I can see this kid getting more and more snaps as the season progresses.
Roanman
CB needs at least 2 new faces immediately. Going back to snap counts vs TCU and OSU, here they are for the CBs:
ReplyDeletexDJ Turner 66 70
Will Johnson 51 73
xGemon Green 48 13
Mike Sainristil (nickel) 66 71
Quinten Johnson (dime) 6 2
Note here that you need 5 CBs to play (not counting Johnson, who is back). This is not just a question of depth -- every one of these is a critical down and we're using 5 CBs to deliver.
So I would quibble with the assertion of Hill being a "we might need him next year" guy. I think we probably need him right away. Wallace can presumably take Turner's snaps, though that's likely to be a big drop off. So the big question is who is taking Green's?
I think Hill is more likely to be in the rotation with starters than Walker but they are likely to use both for a while IMO. Maybe by OSU they've settled into a rotation of the top 4. Before the Ravensification Michigan was more likely to rotate 4 CBs at 2 spots and use Hudson/Peppers as hybrid space guys. Ironically, now that we are playing 3 corners full time (Sainristil is not doing LB things hardly ever) we seem to have less CB rotation than when we had 2.
Anyway the 4th CB (behind Johnson, Sainristil, and Wallace) is a critical player who will see critical snaps. But the 5th might just be an injury replacement depth guy. Given we don't know if Hill is CB3 or CB6 or somewhere in between, I'd have him higher than this on the countdown. But I understand Thunder's approach here is to pick a guy and that guy is Walker. That will be an interesting one to watch through the first half of the season.
This is kind of like the T.J. Guy discussion, in which I said that it's not really about the position - it's about Guy himself. Even if Hill - a true freshman who weighs 171 pounds - is the #3 guy behind Johnson and Sainristil, the drop-off between him and Harris or Walker or Wallace or Calhoun or whoever is not likely to be steep.
DeleteIf you're playing Madden and your top two corners are 90s, but your backups are all rated between 68-70...then you don't need to pay the guy who's a 70 a ton of money when it comes time for free agency.
Not how I see it. Certainly possible that they clump together (68-70) but I think it's likely that somebody is going to emerge from the pack to be significantly better than the others and be an 80. Hill, to me, is most likely of that bunch.
DeleteBottom line is that its not like Madden - our defense rotates multiple guys. The 3 starters (Johnson/Sainristil/Wallace) can't all play every snap so you need at least one backup, and then another to play some more. The assumption that CB4 is similar to CB5 and CB6 strikes me as dubious.
Walker could be good, but looked unplayable in Spring. Harris is a walk-on. Freshman are sometimes very good and very bad so it's very uncertain that Hill (or Calhoun) will be contributors but it's a pretty impactful thing if they are.
There's a big range of possible outcomes here and we saw the consequences of not having a good 5th corner in the TCU game last year.